Education: Paper Classes

Winners never cheat and cheaters never win.The University of North Carolina could take a lesson from this ageless advice: investigators have found that thousands of UNC students have taken fake “paper classes,” which gave students easy and undeserved A’s. What’s more, the majority of the students taking these classes were athletes, many of them funneled into the classes by counselors, perpetuating the stereotype that student athletes aren’t actually very studious. “These counselors saw the paper classes and the artificially high grades they yielded as key to helping some student-athletes remain eligible,” Kenneth Wainstein wrote in his report. The 121 page report states that roughly 3,100 students took the “GPA booster” classes but investigators believe that there were most likely even more. The scandal first came to light nearly five years ago but after the recent reports, UNC admitted for the very first time that it was at fault. In fact, Chancellor Carol Folt said, “it was a university issue.” Exactly how the “issue” will affect the future of the prestigious school is unclear; perhaps UNC should do away with the so called “paper classes” and add some more on morality?